I recall that Ford keys had a good chance of working in other cars… Our car key could start the pickup, but wouldn’t open the door. I could open my friend’s car door, but couldn’t start it.
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The '76 280z and the '83 Sentra (my dearly departed fun car, and Abrams tank, respectively) could be started, then you could pull the key out of the ignition with the car still running. Not sure if that was a feature, or odd result of the cars having really old keys, but it was sweet. You could start the cars in the winter, lock the door, and come back on a few minutes to a warm car. Not quite as convenient as remote start, but somewhat more secure.
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I want one of those. Or a 240, at least.
Sort of did that the other day. Again, yay keyless ignition. We got out of the car, then wondered what that noise was, realized the engine was still runnning. I guess it would have stopped eventually after we’d walked out of range.
Kinda reminds me of a time when we went with our dad to pick our granddad up from the bus station when he came up for a visit. Dad pulled up by the kerb, and for some reason, got out to check how he’d parked, but left the engine running.
My sister and I, being the diligent kids that we were, duly got out of the car after dad, making sure to lock all the doors behind us like we’d been taught.
Eventually dad managed to get the AA out to stick a loop through the door to pop the locks. After about an hour of standing around the car while it happily idled.
Our old (80s) Toyota keys quite happily opened and started my teacher’s Ford - she’d managed to lock herself out once at a parents’ night, and was getting everyone to try to open her car, et voila!
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The annoying thing with this is that all the car manufacturers are jumping in the same stupid bandwagon with these features. If you tell them, “Look, I just want a bloody car, can I get something without all this extra crap?” they don’t even have any options.
Reminds me of the last time I bought a stereo, and the salesperson tried to talk me into a 5 CD changer. When I said I just wanted a one-disc player, he asked why, and I said, “fewer moving parts.”
Car people always act like this extra flash is all good, but all I can think is what the mean time between failures is, and what the implications are since they’ve got every damn thing chained together instead of using separate systems.
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These are all fair points.
My 1967 Pontiac did that. It’s caused by worn tumblers in the center cylinder of the ignition lock.
Once they wear a little more, you’ll probably be able to turn the ignition with a popsicle stick, or any other flat object. Which is a less desirable feature…
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